Guitarist Jim Root Is Out of Stone Sour

Update (5:45PM ET): This story has been amended with a statement from Stone Sour confirming that Jim Root is in fact no longer in the band.

Earlier this year, guitarist Jim Root sat out Stone Sour's tour with the reason given that he was concentrating his efforts on writing music for Slipknot's next album. However, now the band has announced that it has parted ways with Root.

The first of the news came earlier today (May 17) when a fan caught wind that Root would also be sitting out Stone Sour's three U.S. summer shows scheduled for July 18-20, and asked the guitarist on his Instagram account (@stuperbee) if he was still taking time off from the band. To which Root replied, "I'm not in that band anymore. Not my decision. Not happy about it." See the exchange below:

A few hours after we posted the above news, Stone Sour themselves released a statement confirming that they have parted ways with Root. See the band's full Facebook message below:

As some of you might have heard by now, Stone Sour and Jim Root have indeed parted ways. We were trying to wait until the completion of the new SK [Slipknot] album, but in light of recent events, we are going to confirm this information and move on. We feel it's best for both bands and hope that is reflected in the days to come. We will give you more information when the time comes.

With Corey Taylor being the vocalist for both Stone Sour and Slipknot, there's no telling what this will mean for the relationship between Root and Taylor as bandmates in Slipknot. Meanwhile, Slipknot also underwent a major lineup change in December when they parted ways with drummer Joey Jordison, with the stickman insisting he did not quit the band.